by Mac MacArthur

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 1999--NEW YORK (APJ)-- No one could accuse this writer of pulling punches when it comes to the ultra-right in our  country.

They come in all shapes and sizes. Militias. The KKK. The CCC. The faction in Congress that supported the House Managers  and Ken Starr. Starr himself. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Fred Phelps, James Dobson, Gary Bauer and the rest of the  Whore-ly Rollers who, at any other time, might be found in the gutter begging for coins.

But I've largely left George W. Bush alone.

Sure, I've written a few funny things--helped with some riotous pictures and drawings--but never have I gone for the jugular with this guy--except over his National Guard lies.

But the continuing saga--and lying--over  "How George W. Served His Country" is just so infuriating, so repulsive and so horrendous in reality that I cannot control myself any longer.

Now look, all you Republican readers: I don't care how much of Daddy's friends' money this little punk can raise.  He's a loser.  And you will lose the White House yet again--plus the House and the Senate--if you continue to fund this man.

Not only is he a loser, as he has been all his life, but he's never accomplished anything - anything - without his Daddy's and his Granddaddy's help or "arrangement."

He's dropping nine points a week in the polls.

Americans are already wise to him.

Dump him now!

How un-American can you get?  What has happened to this nation?  Are we now crowning a spoiled prince who's never done a lick of hard work in his life?  Are we anointing as Chosen One a failed businessman who spent last weekend sitting on a grassy knoll with Daddy and Jeb watching the Ryder Cup, rather than going down to slums he underwrites for Latinos in the great state of Texas and trying to find them water and sewers--and maybe a school?

Because that's who you are about to give your nomination.

Are you out of your minds?

You have John McCain, perhaps the only honest man in Congress in you corner.

You have Steve Forbes--and no matter how repulsive he may seem, he's not a pretender.

Even Elizabeth Dole would be a better choice.

But no.  You want to go with a loser--the -son of a loser--in some suicidal race to the destruction of your party.

Do you think the relative success of the Reform Party is a glitch?  Do you think it is a coincidence that the Reform Party eats away at 9-17% of your vote--your Republican vote?

The Democrats don't have splinter parties growing up around them and beginning to smother them.

You do.

You have the Reform Party.  You have the religious right cutting you up in the name of God.  You have militiamen, the Jew haters, the Black haters, the Hispanic haters, the teacher haters, the unionized blue collar worker haters, the Gay bashers, and worse.

Don't you get it?  It is your party--a party largely consisting of decent people--who are creating a tent for the worst garbage the human race has to offer.

Is that what you really want? To cement all the haters into one big voting bloc?  Have you no decency?

George W. Bush stands for nothing.

What he has done in Texas is this: He's made sure that women are put to death along with the largest group of death-row convicts in history in his prisons. He is sending blacks and other minorities to prison for minor infractions at such a record pace that he threatens to eliminate the black race in Texas for lack of fathers. He is arming the citizens with concealed weapons to pay off his campaign financiers. He has cheated the wives and children of the dead by giving his friends who control the funeral industry free rein in Texas in exchange for a lot of campaign cash, and worse.

He was a piss-poor student--a man not to be trusted with the complex decisions required from the most powerful single human being in the world today, the President of the United States.  His advisors are the "Cream of the Crap," worn old tires now retreaded.  They're the same men who brought you Vietnam, Waco, the destruction of organized labor, and arms-for-hostages.

This "National 12-Step Program" which tells us that anything bad that happens to you is your own fault--anything--is his Bible.   He is the leader of a bunch I refer to as "Americans Anonymous," people who can't control their greed, lust and penchant for just plain meanness.

They get up at their meetings, one by one and tell the audience, "Hi! My name is John Doe, and I am a greedy, self-serving American who pretends to believe in God so I can righteously ignore and sweep away the poor, the downtrodden, any non-conformist, and anyone that just plain annoys me.  And I'm proud of it!  I have produced an entire generation of children, American children, who have no conscience who know that it's every man for himself, who don't demonstrate for anything because they have no principles to defend.  I haven't helped a single Mexican gain citizenship so he can support his starving family.  I haven't given a nickel to a black University. I have helped sue the greatest educational institutions in the country to keep Blacks and other minorities--like those Mess'kins--from getting preferential admission treatment.  I have supported legal groups that sue universities for something called "reverse discrimination."  I think Jews control too much in this country.  I think AIDS is payback from God.  I think eugenics should make a comeback! I think television producers are plotting against our children…"

…and the audience yells back in excited but witless unison:  "Hi Joe!"

This is who you will nominate for President: the titular leader of "Americans Anonymous," Americans who care about nothing and no one except for themselves--and maybe their families as an afterthought.

Face it.  Have you ever heard Democrats called mean, or uncaring, or uncompassionate?  No.  And there's a good reason for that.  But you don't get it, do you.  You've let these weasels destroy your party, once a bastion for conservative economics, now a hideout for the sludge of society--people that would have been drummed out of any church in this land decades ago.

George W. Bush does nothing about this group.  He merely remains silent and takes money from "Americans Anonymous" and their evil little friends.  He, like his father before him, thinks he deserves to be President.

Why?

Because he was born.   And that's it. What has this man offered this country?

Nothing but underlining his countenance for hatred either by action or by silence.

This is a different story--because in this case Bush is a killer as far as I'm concerned.

He was willing to knock another boy out of place--cut to the head of the line and allow another boy to lose the safety of Air National Guard service, instead shipping off to Vietnam as just another piece of meat to feed the North Vietnamese in Lyndon Johnson's war.

Hell, I can understand George W.'s wish to stay alive--but I do not understand his wish to send another boy, someone he didn't even know, in his place.

When Bush and his father talk about this, they are lying bald-faced to you,, lying about the manslaughter of another boy--another American boy who didn't want to die in Vietnam, but may have.

If you don't believe it, do the math. Think the thing out.  Snort at his feeble latest attempts to "blame" his dad's friends for helping him send another boy to his death.

Bush is simply putting another one over on you.

Remember, he's told you that he (1) decided to join the Guard; (2) didn't share that goal with anyone; (3) just ambled on into the Guard office and volunteered; and (4) the next thing he knew, he was flying around Texas, safe.

When that fable didn't work, he "edited" his story.

This time, he told us he did tell his father, but his father didn't lift a finger to help him and neither did any of his friends or allies.  He has never answered our question "What was the name of the boy at the end of the long Air National Guard waiting list of kids hoping to save their lives from the Viet Kong who was knocked off that list and sent to Vietnam?"

We know it was not George W. Bush.

This month, Ben Barnes, a former Speaker of the House of the Texas Legislature, admitted that he may have done something to help little Bush move to the head of a line where 150 other boys--their mothers and fathers with them in spirit--waited in vain for that coveted slot in the Air National Guard that Bush took, boys who deserved that slot more than he.

The rumors about Speaker Barnes kept circulating and growing. So, at a time when the nation is buzzing about Linda Tripp, Dan Quayle, and John McCain, Bush's press team makes a statement that it's "Okay for Barnes to tell whatever he knows about this."

But the deal with Barnes was already set.  Now, do you really think that Barnes hadn't already told what he knew?  Of course he did.  But Bush needed time to make a pact with Barnes. The deal: keep me and my daddy out of it.  Say you helped me, but make it look like daddy and I didn't know about it.

What the quid pro quo is, I don't know.  But I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later.

The Speaker announced yesterday that he indeed had called the chief of the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 to "recommend George W. Bush for a pilot slot" at the height of the Vietnam War, a slot that would keep him safe and chasing Texas skirts.  His fellow Americans were dying--58,000 of them--while he played Sky King.

And guess what?  Barnes added that Bush Daddy didn't ask him for the help - a friend of the Bush family did!!!

How convenient. How very convenient.

Now, anyone else might assume that Daddy was and is no idiot--and thus he made a plea to his friend to ask for him, not to protect BushBaby, but to protect his own political ass. At that time Daddy Bush couldn't possibly believe that young George could land a job flipping patties at the local Burger King--let alone wearing officers wings at the Pentagon--so he wasn't worrying about Li'l Dubya's political career, believe me.

He was fretting about his own future and his plans to be President of the United States.

The deed was done, and not just with the friend who called Barnes, who called the Chief of the Guard, who slipped BushBaby to the top of the list.

Many additional calls were made.  Many people were angry about it.  They knew, or should have known, that they might in essence be sending another boy to his death in Southeast Asia by giving George W. a free and undeserved instant ride to the top of the list.

And it had to be that way.

Imagine a young black boy who had scored 25% on his pilot aptitude test, with a D+ grade-point average in college, walking into the Air National Guard and being sent to the head of the line! Yeah, right.

Equal opportunity.  Sure.

But it's not that BushBaby tried to stay out of the war that puts my pen to paper today.  Many did, and for the right reasons.

It's that he is lying about it now-because this nation has all-of-a-sudden become a weep-for-the-veterans center, a worshipper of war and those that fought it.  And there's really nothing wrong with that. But for BushBaby, a Republican, any admission that he was trying to dodge the draft, and doing anything to accomplish it--including taking a qualified boy's place in line--might ruin his ability to run.

So he sticks to this line:

"I can tell you what happened. Nothing happened.  My Guard unit was looking for pilots and I flew for the Guard.… I'm proud of my service and any allegation that my dad asked for special favors is simply not true.... I didn't ask anybody to help get me to the Guard either."

Notice the lawyer-like construction of that statement.

"Nothing happened."  What does that mean? It is neither a denial nor an admission.  It is simply a statement that has nothing to do with the issue.

Then there's his lie that his guard unit was looking for pilots. It turns out they had nearly 200 of them fighting for just a few slots for pilots.

Then he says he is proud of his service--but no one is saying he shouldn't be.  That is the fluff on the statement, to cover the next part of this pap: "My Dad did not ask for favors and I didn't ask anyone for help either."

So?  How did you get in, Mr. Bush?

Was it everyone else's zeal to protect your royal body from harm?

Was it the fact that you were more valuable that other American boys because your family was wealthy?

I mean, we all know that this is the way things really work in America, and most everywhere else.  But not in your case, right?  No, you were a kind of a hero, weren't you. Was it your super-intelligence, your Phi Beta Kappa mentality, your work record?

Okay, so I accept his explanation.  I accept this story from BushBaby for purposes of examining who he really is.

No one helped him.  He wanted to learn to fly so he could then zoom off to Vietnam and put his life in danger--something that would never have happened because he was not flying the type of planes used over Vietnam.

But let's assume that he didn't know that--admittedly he is not what you'd call swift-minded.

So now we're just down to Bush and the rest of the kids virtually clawing at the Guard's door trying to save their lives and serve their country at the same time.  Why couldn't he have taken his place at the end of the line?  Why did he take whoever's favors and place himself at the head of line?

We wanted to find out, and to find out about another politician's son--a Democrat--who may have received  the same treatment.

So our counsel filed the proper requests with the proper authorities: Freedom of Information Act requests.

We asked the Texas Air National Guard for the names of the boys on the waiting list the day George W. and this other kid applied.  We asked them for their test scores, files of any other nature, and more.  What we wanted to do was to contact these other men and find out what happened to them since 1968.

What did we get back from the Air National Guard?

Well, some very nice publicity photos of George W., his family and crew. We got a copy of a brochure celebrating George W. Bush published by his air group.  We got a history of the 147th Air Group--containing none of  the information we asked for.  We got more PR material about BushBaby himself.

And that was it.

There was none of the information we asked for--but we came away with the strong impression that the Guard was working as Governor Bush's private PR agency.

Impressive!

The warrant officer claimed that "there is no record" in possession of the Air National Guard that we requested and suggested that we appeal to the Secretary of the Army

And we have done just that.

But why are there no records?  Where are they?  All these boys, including Bush, had files--files on their test scores, their health, their pilot ability scores, and more.

Did the Guard just burn them?  If so, why?  And better yet - when?

I know--I'm starting to sound like Chris Ruddy or Matt Drudge.  But as someone said, "Paranoia does not stop someone from plotting against you."

What may be even more interesting to you is how Mr. Barnes' request on behalf of Bush became public in the first place.

There is a lawsuit being tried in Texas right now.  Lawyers for the plaintiffs wanted to question former Texas House Speaker Barnes, who used to be a lobbyist for a company called GTECH.  GTECH has a lucrative contract with the state of Texas--and plaintiff's lawyers think they have it in exchange for Barnes' silence about the National Guard and Bush.

Barnes testified yesterday that a gentleman named Sidney Adger--an oilman and friend of Bush Daddy--called him and asked him to "recommend" BabyBush for the pilot position, a position that was not open to him because more than 100 men were in line before him.

Adger, as it turns out,  is conveniently dead, and cannot be questioned about his talk with Barnes.

But I'll wager his diaries and other  records, such as phone records, might just turn up showing an exchange of telephone calls between himself and the Bush family around that time.

Finally, add this to the tale: exactly one year ago, Donald L. Evans, the chief fundraiser for the Bush campaign, met with Barnes--a man not likely to give Bush money.  Barnes told him about the Adger request--and also about a note he received from Governor Bush thanking him for his candor in acknowledging that Barnes received no call from any member of the Bush family.

Now how ludicrous is that?  Is Barnes trying to cover for a Democrat son whom he may have also intervened on behalf?  Is Barnes afraid of Bush should he become President?

And is it not prima facie evidence that someone in the Bush family must have contacted at least Mr. Adger? Otherwise, how would he or anyone else have known that BabyBush needed help to avoid the draft and the war then raging in Vietnam?

Of course it is.

So here's some advice, Mr. Governor George W. Bush.

Come clean.

Admit that you had some help--but that's just the way things worked and still work.

If you had done that in the first place, perhaps we wouldn't be looking for the name of that kid on The Wall. You know--the kid who might have perished because you took his place in line.

Until you 'fess up, you're a disgrace--even to politicians.